


Flames

by eymberfyire (gracefulfallen)



Category: Protector of the Small - Tamora Pierce, Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Character Death, Complicated Relationships, F/F, F/M, Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-28
Updated: 2015-05-28
Packaged: 2018-04-01 18:14:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4029766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gracefulfallen/pseuds/eymberfyire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Black God shows mercy, even to fools.  Written for Goldenlake SMACKDOWN 2010.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flames

**Author's Note:**

> Fair warning - this revolves around the death of a major character through violence. It's not descriptively graphic, but might still be hard for the squeamish.

  
[Flames](http://fanfiction.fiefgoldenlake.com/viewstory.php?sid=914) by [eymberfyire](http://fanfiction.fiefgoldenlake.com/viewuser.php?uid=69)  


Something wet, and sticky, and foul smelling strikes Kel. She wipes it off of her face and looks up in time to see her squire’s horrified expression from where she had knocked her aside. Then there is a flash, and light and heat.

_She doesn’t understand anything, can hardly keep images and sounds separated and clear. “both loved me so much…” The world spins and things that can’t_ ARE _, “of course I loved you, but I was just so…” while her head doesn’t exactly pound so much as her mind_ s t r e t c h e s. _It is far too bright. “were so quiet” She is too small. She has to go for a while. “I was afraid.”_

Pain. Excruciating pain, worse than anything she has ever felt. Screams, probably her own. A release of bladder and bowls that she has no control over. An overwhelming roaring sound that drowns out all else. 

_Blackness, then things seem like they echo to her off of a stone wall in a long corridor. “Lass, y’have tah let her rest.” She can make out sounds if she focuses, but it is exhausting. Shapes shift and move in eccentric patters of light and dark. It reminds her of what she saw through a kaleidoscope in the markets of Carthak. It is too much. She needs to go._

“I’m worried, love.”

“It’s more difficult for her than t’was for us. Her parting was harder.”

She returns long enough to see a flash of red and violet. She is gone.

The thick, choking smell of cooked meat. Colors fading to grey. Katrin’s face above her, sobbing, further and further _away. Blackness. Sounds becoming muffled. Screams for a healer. Silence._

“There you are.” It is a whisper that draws Kel awake, slowly. She sits up carefully, expecting pain, but there is none. She looks in confusion at the young woman in front of her, red haired and fair skinned. Into violet eyes. 

Kel looks down at hands that are not scarred, not burned, not fifty anymore. They are the hands of a young woman in her prime. She has the first finger on her left hand. She blinks. 

“Kel?” She looks up into those eyes and she knows them, as impossible as it is. _Things that can’t…_ “We were worried about you.” 

A soft hand cups her cheek, not calloused and roughened as she remembers it. She looks past the woman _I won’t say the name_ to a man, young and while not handsome, still charismatic and alluring. Hazel eyes that are made for mirth are uncharacteristically serious. His nose is still crooked. This comforts Kel.

“I…” She looks back to the women, closes her eyes. “You said you didn’t… couldn’t love me. Ever. Why did the Black God let you wait for me?” _Do I really want to know?_

There is a laugh, choked with tears, but happy and relieved. “Because he knew what a fool I was.” _Disbelief_. Kel opened her eyes again and looked at Alanna. George nodded once, turned and strolled out. “I just… things are simpler here. Clearer. George had given me his blessing, but I’m so damned…”

“Stubborn.” Kel finished. _Things that can’t…_ She regarded this young woman in front of her carefully. Alanna bit her lip with a rare show of nervousness, then leaned in to kiss Kel carefully. … _Are_.

“Of course I loved you, Kel.” 

She blinks several times, for once at a loss. “I… will need time, I think.”

Alanna smiles and brushes a strand of Kel’s hair away from her face. “We have all the time we’ll need.”

This story archived at <http://fanfiction.fiefgoldenlake.com/viewstory.php?sid=914>  



End file.
